OHI 2021: Summary of results

This document describes results from the 2021 global OHI assessment. This is mostly an internal document to explore and check results. It also creates the figures used on the website and in other documents.

Primary dataset

These data are the OHI scores for the eez regions of 220 countries and territories from 2012 to 2021.

Region 0 is the global average scores, which are calculated using an area-weighted average of the region scores (status, likely future state, and score).

OHI scores

Global summary

This section describes global patterns in index and goal scores. The overall global score was 69.72.

Alternative color scale

Average global performance of the 10 goals.

Flower plots for each region can be downloaded from here

Country summary

Country index scores for 2021. Maps describing goal and index scores can be downloaded from here.

Distribution of country index scores. The median index score among countries was 68.46.

The regions with index scores of 80 or greater are:

region_name	Index
Macquarie Island	91.66
Howland Island and Baker Island	89.72
Jarvis Island	83.41
Sint Maarten	83.20
Seychelles	82.12
Turks and Caicos Islands	81.80
Saba	81.62
South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands	80.83
Heard and McDonald Islands	80.49
New Zealand	80.38

The regions with index scores of 60 or less are:

region_name	Index
Gilbert Islands (Kiribati)	59.99
North Korea	59.82
Haiti	59.66
Republique du Congo	59.12
Togo	58.76
El Salvador	58.72
Ukraine	58.59
Tristan da Cunha	58.14
Bosnia and Herzegovina	57.60
Saint Helena	56.85
Syria	56.46
Eritrea	56.35
Falkland Islands	56.25
Israel	55.16
Libya	54.38
Democratic Republic of the Congo	52.94
Sudan	52.86
Liberia	51.77
Ivory Coast	50.43

Country scores across scenario year

Carpet plot figure (download as high resolution png) providing an overview of the scores from the 2021 assessment. Each row represents a region, the main groupings represent goals, and within each goal there are 7 years of data. Black regions indicate no data.

Don’t try too hard to interpret the results for specific countries/goals/years!!

This plot is good for providing a quick overview of:

• What is the range of scores?
• Which goals tend to have high scores across most regions (species, habitat)
• Which goals have a lot of variation across regions (tourism & recreation, lasting special places)
• Which goals are volatile across years (natural products, tourism & recreation)

Data

This interactive table describes the index and goal scores for the regions in 2021 (or, download csv version):

OHI Trends

Trend values are slope estimates from a linear model of scores for each region/goal over the past 9 years. Positive values indicate increasing scores during the past 9 years and negative values indicate decreasing scores.

A color-coded table of trend values for each country is available here (as well as a csv file).

NOTE: Currently, these data include the livelihoods and economies goal but these results should be viewed sceptically because these data were last updated for the 2013 assessment. Many other goals contain components with poor data resolution (i.e., infrequently, or never, measured over time).

Global summary

The following table provides the global scores (eez area weighted average of region scores) for the Index and goals/subgoals for all years.

Table View

goal	2012	2013	2014	2015	2016	2017	2018	2019	2020	2021
Index	69.54	70.10	70.43	70.68	70.72	70.43	70.32	69.96	69.78	69.72
Artisanal opportunities	75.12	75.62	76.07	76.01	75.21	74.39	74.12	73.50	73.72	72.93
Species condition (subgoal)	79.59	79.29	78.99	78.70	78.40	78.10	77.80	77.50	77.20	77.20
Biodiversity	81.61	81.48	81.33	81.34	81.33	81.14	80.92	80.68	80.38	80.44
Habitat (subgoal)	83.63	83.67	83.66	83.98	84.27	84.18	84.04	83.86	83.56	83.67
Coastal protection	82.54	82.49	82.56	82.78	82.70	82.20	81.88	81.61	81.67	81.83
Carbon storage	77.78	77.78	77.78	77.78	77.80	77.80	77.79	77.79	77.79	77.79
Clean water	67.63	67.47	67.58	68.01	68.04	68.13	68.26	68.37	68.48	69.32
Fisheries (subgoal)	53.69	54.37	54.96	54.76	54.46	53.74	53.52	53.15	52.25	51.88
Food provision	49.85	50.16	50.68	50.48	50.36	49.70	49.36	48.92	47.97	47.67
Mariculture (subgoal)	5.93	5.86	5.86	5.88	5.98	6.10	6.24	6.36	6.51	6.65
Iconic species (subgoal)	63.70	64.57	64.64	65.06	64.31	64.18	65.13	62.51	60.32	60.21
Sense of place	59.98	60.37	60.85	61.21	61.24	62.05	63.07	62.12	60.90	60.96
Lasting special places (subgoal)	56.26	56.17	57.06	57.36	58.16	59.92	61.00	61.72	61.47	61.70
Natural products	76.44	76.36	77.60	78.21	78.13	77.24	75.75	74.63	75.26	74.46
Tourism & recreation	47.24	48.30	48.97	50.15	51.56	50.69	51.01	50.85	50.61	50.80

The following is a very preliminary analysis of how the global scores changed over time. Global index scores decreased by an average -0.03 points per year, with 130 regions having decreasing trends and 86 having increasing trends.

long_goal	average_change_per_year	p_value	num_rgns_pos_trend	num_rgns_neg_trend	mean_trend	sd_trend
Iconic species (subgoal)	-0.43	0.0204	32	187	-0.53	0.48
Artisanal opportunities	-0.32	0.0009	72	122	-0.18	1.36
Food provision	-0.29	0.0022	69	148	-0.23	0.91
Natural products	-0.29	0.0424	68	122	-0.56	3.15
Species condition (subgoal)	-0.28	0.0000	11	209	-0.33	0.16
Fisheries (subgoal)	-0.27	0.0057	54	162	-0.32	0.70
Biodiversity	-0.14	0.0000	28	190	-0.16	0.29
Coastal protection	-0.12	0.0030	18	19	-0.01	0.12
Index	-0.03	0.5918	86	129	-0.06	0.36
Carbon storage	0.00	0.0935	22	14	0.00	0.03
Habitat (subgoal)	0.00	0.8920	97	94	0.00	0.55
Livelihoods	0.04	0.1215	68	64	-0.03	0.56
Mariculture (subgoal)	0.09	0.0001	47	23	0.19	0.86
Sense of place	0.15	0.1326	78	142	0.09	1.07
Clean water	0.16	0.0002	105	96	0.09	0.67
Livelihoods & economies	0.21	0.1215	140	37	0.13	0.48
Tourism & recreation	0.36	0.0070	137	54	0.32	1.32
Economies	0.38	0.1215	133	17	0.29	0.64
Lasting special places (subgoal)	0.74	0.0000	70	32	0.71	2.13

Country summary

The global average decreased by an average of -0.03 points per year, but there was a good deal of variation in trend among regions and goals.

The following histogram describes the distribution of trend (e.g., change in score per year) in index scores:

The 10 regions with the largest increases in index scores are:

country	trend
Pitcairn	1.13
Norfolk Island	0.75
Jamaica	0.74
Tonga	0.73
Papua New Guinea	0.71
Tokelau	0.70
Cook Islands	0.69
South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands	0.62
Indonesia	0.62
Wallis and Futuna	0.54

The 10 regions with the largest decreases in index scores are:

	country	trend
211	Syria	-0.67
212	Togo	-0.67
213	Puerto Rico and Virgin Islands of the United States	-0.69
214	South Africa	-0.79
215	Israel	-0.89
216	Morocco	-1.01
217	Falkland Islands	-1.04
218	Palau	-1.23
219	Panama	-1.25
220	Marshall Islands	-1.52

Country change in goal

A heat map describing change in trend for country and goals:

A closer look at goals

This section takes a closer look at the goal/subgoal scores.

Scores

Goal/subgoal scores for the 2021 scenario.

Artisanal opportunities

Scores

Top 10 performers

region_name	score
Antigua and Barbuda	100.00
Wallis and Futuna	100.00
Djibouti	100.00
R_union	100.00
Costa Rica	100.00
Jordan	99.80
Samoa	98.62
Bahrain	98.46
Qatar	97.36
United Arab Emirates	96.29

Bottom 10 performers

	region_name	score
191	Phoenix Islands (Kiribati)	43.21
192	Tristan da Cunha	43.13
193	Norfolk Island	42.54
194	Gilbert Islands (Kiribati)	36.93
195	Palau	34.89
196	Ukraine	32.80
197	South Africa	30.99
198	Maldives	28.39
199	Georgia	24.64
200	Namibia	24.39

Species condition

Scores

Top 10 performers

region_name	score
Romania	88.70
Bulgaria	88.25
Ukraine	88.02
Northern Saint-Martin	87.75
Jordan	86.97
Djibouti	86.79
Sint Eustatius	86.75
Saba	86.14
Sint Maarten	85.49
Cambodia	85.42

Bottom 10 performers

	region_name	score
211	Greece	66.37
212	Italy	65.71
213	Syria	65.12
214	Israel	64.60
215	Algeria	63.52
216	Lebanon	63.15
217	Malta	62.33
218	Cyprus	60.32
219	Libya	59.90
220	Monaco	58.81

Habitat

Scores

Top 10 performers

region_name	score
Macquarie Island	100.00
Aruba	100.00
French Polynesia	99.98
Clipperton Island	99.95
Amsterdam Island and Saint Paul Island	99.95
Saba	99.94
French Guiana	99.87
Wallis and Futuna	99.86
Saint Pierre and Miquelon	99.85
Norfolk Island	99.81

Bottom 10 performers

	region_name	score
211	Democratic Republic of the Congo	63.59
212	Iceland	61.16
213	Ivory Coast	60.81
214	Gabon	60.66
215	Sint Eustatius	60.25
216	Andaman and Nicobar	58.40
217	Poland	57.74
218	Jan Mayen	56.75
219	Phoenix Islands (Kiribati)	41.38
220	Bosnia and Herzegovina	36.52

Coastal protection

Scores

Top 10 performers

region_name	score
Macquarie Island	100
Sint Maarten	100
Saba	100
Clipperton Island	100
Aruba	100
Sint Eustatius	100
Wallis and Futuna	100
Sao Tome and Principe	100
Curacao	100
Tuvalu	100

Bottom 10 performers

	region_name	score
198	Anguilla	57.03
199	Poland	56.38
200	Argentina	55.45
201	British Virgin Islands	55.23
202	Chile	51.66
203	Bermuda	51.18
204	Pakistan	45.22
205	Liberia	34.78
206	Ivory Coast	32.59
207	Democratic Republic of the Congo	29.99

Carbon storage

Scores

Top 10 performers

region_name	score
Sint Maarten	100
Turks and Caicos Islands	100
Saba	100
Ile Europa	100
Mayotte	100
Northern Saint-Martin	100
Aruba	100
Sint Eustatius	100
Sao Tome and Principe	100
French Polynesia	100

Bottom 10 performers

	region_name	score
171	Guernsey	61.88
172	Ukraine	61.88
173	El Salvador	59.82
174	Vietnam	58.64
175	Oman	52.25
176	Pakistan	45.15
177	Oecussi Ambeno	42.35
178	Liberia	34.74
179	Ivory Coast	32.59
180	Democratic Republic of the Congo	30.01

Clean waters

Scores

Top 10 performers

region_name	score
Heard and McDonald Islands	99.43
Bouvet Island	97.82
South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands	97.40
Kerguelen Islands	96.98
Jarvis Island	96.76
Falkland Islands	96.66
Howland Island and Baker Island	95.86
Phoenix Islands (Kiribati)	95.26
Cook Islands	93.34
Micronesia	93.33

Bottom 10 performers

	region_name	score
211	India	31.12
212	Belgium	30.32
213	Israel	29.02
214	Gilbert Islands (Kiribati)	28.18
215	Slovenia	26.31
216	Nauru	24.26
217	Benin	22.57
218	Togo	20.31
219	Monaco	19.48
220	Gibraltar	18.80

Fisheries

Scores

Top 10 performers

region_name	score
Macquarie Island	100.00
Nauru	97.19
Palau	92.43
Turks and Caicos Islands	91.90
Estonia	90.58
Prince Edward Islands	89.99
Latvia	89.51
Howland Island and Baker Island	89.35
Tuvalu	88.77
Gilbert Islands (Kiribati)	87.82

Bottom 10 performers

	region_name	score
211	Bulgaria	12.42
212	Johnston Atoll	12.03
213	Cocos Islands	11.37
214	Western Sahara	11.14
215	Jan Mayen	10.61
216	Pitcairn	9.82
217	Norfolk Island	8.64
218	Amsterdam Island and Saint Paul Island	8.25
219	Bouvet Island	7.78
220	North Korea	1.93

Mariculture

Scores

Top 10 performers

region_name	score
Norway	100
Spain	100
Slovenia	100
Finland	100
Bulgaria	100
South Korea	100
Taiwan	100
China	100
Singapore	100
Netherlands	100

Bottom 10 performers

	region_name	score
185	Tristan da Cunha	0
186	Saint Helena	0
187	Syria	0
188	Eritrea	0
189	Falkland Islands	0
190	Libya	0
191	Democratic Republic of the Congo	0
192	Sudan	0
193	Liberia	0
194	Ivory Coast	0

Iconic species

Scores

Top 10 performers

region_name	score
Finland	92.46
Estonia	91.85
Latvia	91.85
Lithuania	91.85
Poland	91.85
Sweden	85.93
Denmark	85.50
Germany	84.82
Bouvet Island	84.67
Romania	84.01

Bottom 10 performers

	region_name	score
211	Ile Europa	50.81
212	Kerguelen Islands	50.81
213	Glorioso Islands	50.81
214	Juan de Nova Island	50.81
215	Crozet Islands	50.81
216	Ile Tromelin	50.81
217	Bassas da India	50.81
218	Amsterdam Island and Saint Paul Island	50.81
219	Cambodia	49.90
220	Thailand	49.32

Lasting special places

Scores

Top 10 performers

region_name	score
Macquarie Island	100
Howland Island and Baker Island	100
Jarvis Island	100
Seychelles	100
Saba	100
South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands	100
Heard and McDonald Islands	100
Prince Edward Islands	100
Ile Europa	100
Bonaire	100

Bottom 10 performers

	region_name	score
211	Andaman and Nicobar	0
212	Benin	0
213	Gilbert Islands (Kiribati)	0
214	Togo	0
215	Tristan da Cunha	0
216	Saint Helena	0
217	Syria	0
218	Eritrea	0
219	Libya	0
220	Sudan	0

Natural products

Scores

Top 10 performers

region_name	score
Jan Mayen	100.00
Faeroe Islands	99.98
Georgia	99.89
Lithuania	99.73
Bulgaria	99.70
Estonia	99.69
Seychelles	99.67
Sweden	99.67
Ecuador	99.67
Uruguay	99.66

Bottom 10 performers

	region_name	score
182	Palau	27.52
183	Nicaragua	26.62
184	Micronesia	25.31
185	Fiji	24.28
186	Israel	18.81
187	Morocco	15.65
188	Singapore	14.69
189	Marshall Islands	9.23
190	Belize	5.19
191	Costa Rica	5.07

Tourism and recreation

Scores

Top 10 performers

region_name	score
Sint Maarten	100
Seychelles	100
Saba	100
New Zealand	100
Bonaire	100
Aruba	100
Cape Verde	100
Sint Eustatius	100
Bahamas	100
Curacao	100

Bottom 10 performers

	region_name	score
191	Ukraine	9.33
192	Republique du Congo	9.14
193	Nigeria	8.65
194	Sierra Leone	8.59
195	Libya	7.07
196	Gabon	5.46
197	Angola	5.12
198	Papua New Guinea	4.93
199	Yemen	4.10
200	Democratic Republic of the Congo	2.00

Trends

Annual change in goal/subgoal scores calculated using a linear regression on scores from 2012 to 2021.

Other analyses

Comparing trend and average index scores

To obtain a more complete picture of which regions are doing well and which are doing poorly we compared the average index scores (averaged over 2012 to 2021) and the trends for each region.

Of most concern are regions that have poor scores and declining trends.

The following is an interactive plot (region names are visible when hovering over the points) showing the relationship between average index scores and trend. The horizontal line represents the 0 trend and the vertical line is the average of the average index scores.

Comparing assessment years

The following is a comparison of the global status scores generated for the 2021 scenario by this year’s assessment vs. last year’s assessment.

If the models and source data remain the same, these scores should be exactly the same. Differences indicate changes in methods or source data.

These changes do not reflect changes in actual system health!

long_goal	future	pressures	resilience	score	status	trend
Artisanal opportunities	-3.8169500	0.0019545	0.3776818	0.1605500	4.1376000	-0.0023500
Biodiversity	-7.7491818	NaN	NaN	-4.2857727	-0.8223636	0.0006364
Carbon storage	1.1689726	-0.1062329	1.0378767	2.4876027	3.8065753	0.0359350
Clean water	-2.6277273	-0.0203182	-0.0019545	-1.1628636	0.3014091	0.0077727
Coastal protection	-2.6940237	-0.1756977	0.3955814	-0.3095858	2.0763314	-0.0065772
Economies	-3.7002941	-0.0412322	-0.0030909	-1.8500980	0.0000000	0.0000000
Fisheries (subgoal)	-7.5667273	-0.0451818	1.2515909	-4.4130909	-1.2600000	-0.0047273
Food provision	-6.8916818	NaN	NaN	-4.0348182	-1.1786364	-0.0072273
Habitat (subgoal)	-7.7419725	0.6735321	0.7809174	-4.8774771	-2.0125688	0.0049074
Iconic species (subgoal)	-7.3626818	-0.0479545	0.7535000	-4.0664091	-0.7713182	-0.0023636
Index	-3.6934091	NA	NA	-1.0225455	NA	NA
Lasting special places (subgoal)	0.9929545	0.0025000	-0.0022727	1.7805909	2.5680909	0.0181818
Livelihoods	-2.7666667	-0.0340284	-0.0017727	-1.3825980	0.0000000	0.0000000
Livelihoods & economies	-3.2331863	NaN	NaN	-1.6166176	-0.0001471	0.0006373
Mariculture (subgoal)	-0.5720207	0.0025455	4.1116364	-0.4254922	-0.2789119	0.0115026
Natural products	-1.1015957	-0.1056771	-0.2656250	3.0011702	7.1039362	-0.0350000
Sense of place	-3.1850909	NaN	NaN	-1.1428636	0.8988636	0.0083182
Species condition (subgoal)	-7.6479545	-0.0686818	1.6323182	-3.6403182	0.3670455	-0.0015455
Tourism & recreation	-3.4639500	-0.0107727	-0.0019545	-1.8934000	-0.3228500	0.0003000

Country data

The following interactive plot provides an overview of how the 2021 scenario scores changed between the 2020 and 2021 assessments for all goals and dimensions.